Top 25 things you must know about self publishing

Wondering if you should self-publish or use the traditional means of publishing? Well, times have changed, and self-publishing has been an increasingly popular choice amongst aspiring authors.

Self-publishing has quite a number of significant benefits as you have total control over your message, marketing and even pricing. However, here are the things you need to know about self-publishing.

1. It is quite easy

Choosing to self-publish a print book is quite easy, however choosing to self-publish an e-book is even a lot more easier.

All it takes to get your book published is to choose a cover size and art for your book, format your manuscript to fit that size, convert your Word document into a PDFand upload it all to the self-publishing platform of your choice.

However, unlike self publishing platforms like CreateSpace and Lulu, AgoraPublishing.com handles the entire process for you to ensure your book meets the highest standards—with this your work would attain mass marketability effortlessly.

2. Digital is the best format, not print

The best way to minimize time and cost Is by making your book available in digital copies rather than print format.

With the readership based for these types of books constantly growing, self-publishing in digital format eliminated the expenses associated with printing and distributing physical paperback copies. This not only makes it globally accessible but allow readers from all over the world to simply find and purchase a copy online without having to worry about shipping fees.

3. The quality is top notch

Self-publishing platforms like AgoraPublishing.com stand out from the rest particularly because of their commitment to ensuring that your work is of top quality.

They have self-publishing professionals who are always ready and willing to help identify flaws in your book and equally provide the necessary assistance to turn your idea into a best seller.

4. There are quite a number of mediocre self-published books

Due to the ease of access, a lot of self-publishers release substandard books into the market—and with platforms like CreateSpace lacking quality control, it becomes quite easy for authors to produce poor quality books.

Nonetheless, platforms such as AgoraPublishing.com provides unprecedented quality control and checks on all books to ensure that only the best is made available to the public.

5. Everyone is self-publishing

As stated earlier, there is a very low barrier of entry into the self-publishing market and this means every Tom, Dick and Harry is an author.

6. Creating a professional book can be difficult

Without proper guidance, creating a professional look can be quite difficult. It’s the reason traditional publishing takes significantly longer time as a lot of checks and crosschecks have to be made to ensure everything comes out right.

However, typesetting is a very important part of publishing a book and AgoraPublishing.com ensuresthat each and every one of their writers are provided with high quality typesetting services—unlike Create Space who don’t view typesetting an essential part of publishing a book.

7. Set clear goals for your work

Doing this helps you determine the right service to choose. For example, if your aim is to create a book that should be read by only family and friends, it won’t be wise to invest so much time and money producing it. However, the same would not apply if your objective is to publish a best-seller.

8. Most self-publishers don’t care about the success of your book

Sadly, most self-publishing platforms like Lulu and CreateSpace aren’t really interested in the success of your book.

Nonetheless, some platforms like AgoraPublishing.com are an exception as they are one of the very few self-publishing firms—created by a renowned author—that really understands all it takes for an author to becomes successful.

9. Success isn’t always guaranteed

Now, if your book is really substandard, it’s normal not to have high expectations. However, with self-publishing, creating a masterpiece doesn’t necessarily guarantee best-seller status.

10. Stick with niche titles

In the self-publishing marketspace indie romance/erotica novels and non-fiction titles have recorded the highest success rates—unlike fiction books that even struggle in traditional markets, unless by renowned authors with massive followership.

11. Get your own ISBN

Most self-publishing operations typically provides authors with a free ISBN for both print and e-book format, but whatever platform provides this would be listed as the publisher.

12. Create a clear and unique title

Basically, to ensure that your book is easy to find, ensure that you the best SEO for your book title.

13. Proceed with caution when using editing/proof reading services

There are quite a number of companies that offer editing and proof-reading services for your work. However, it’s important to proceed with caution as not all of them would understand your requirements.

14. Some self-publishing platform are too expensive

For example, the in-house editors, copy-writes and in-house graphic designer at CreateSpace charge exorbitant fees for their services. Thus, it is advisable to purchase as little as possible from your chosen platform.

15. Ensure your work is copy edited

Copy editing is important to the success of your self-published book. Therefore, it should be one of the key criteria when choosing a service to go with.

16. Market your book

Books don’t just sell themselves and the mistake a lot ofself-publishers make is assuming that hiring a publicist is enough.

Always ensure that you exhaust every available marketing options to place your book in the public eye. Additionally, one advantage of choosing the right self-publishing platform like AgoraPublishing.com is that unlike CreateSpace, writers are provided with marketing services that makes it possible for a particular book to be able to achieve a greater number of copies sold.

17. Negotiate pricing

Always ensure that your ask for deals and discounts on everything.

18. Be inquisitive about the publishing process

For some self-publishing platforms, speaking to a live agent would require you to pay additional fees. Nonetheless, never be afraid to ask questions and always call up (or email/chat as the case may be on platform that require no fees) to complain or get clarity on anything.

19. Don’t be too bothered about getting into bookstores

One of the reasons self-publishing has thrived is due to the higher demand for digital books, therefore don’t be too keen on see your self-published books on the shelves.

This particularly because it is quite difficult to get good placement for self-published books in the store and also royalties on in-store sales reduces.

20. Reviews on self-published titles are rare

It’s very difficult to get your self-published book reviewed—and while in traditional publishing world is reviews are key to book’s success books, times are changing, and blog reviews are now being taken seriously.
Additionally, reputable book reviewers such as Kirkus and Publishers Weekly are now offering self-published authors special reviews services.

21. Make an attractive book cover

Don’t judge a book by it’s cover you say? Well, an attractive book cover is what would make your book stand out in a bookstore or an online store.

22. Ensure that your storefront is highly optimized

Be it in at a bookstore or an online store, always ensure that your storefront details are highly optimized to draw attention.

For digital books, using Google Keywords is one the best ways to drive traffic towards your book, along with adding the appropriate category tags.

23. Price your book rightly

Be careful not to overprice or underprice your work. When setting a price, get a rough estimate of how much money you can make selling your book—while factoring in all the expenses you incurred during the publishing cycle.

24. The odds may be against you

Self-published books typically don’t sell too many copies and according to Publishers Weekly, “traditional publishers aim to publish hundreds of thousands of copies of a few books, self-publishing companies make money by publishing 100 copies of hundreds of thousands of books.”

25. Self-publishing is a rich business

The self-publishing industry is rapidly evolving from what it was few years ago. Now, there are lots of competitors who are constantly pushing out new information and publishers who are continually making necessary upgrades to their facilities, infrastructure, and pricing.